The Antares rocket carrying the Orb-3 Cygnus launched as scheduled from Launch Pad 0A on 28 October 2014. Fifteen seconds after liftoff a failure of propulsion occurred in the first stage. The vehicle began falling back to the launch pad and the Range Safety Officer engaged its flight termination system just before impact.

The resulting explosion was felt in Pocomoke City, Maryland, 20 miles (32 km) away.The fire at the site was quickly contained and allowed to burn itself out overnight.
Initial review of telemetry data found no abnormalities in the pre-launch, the launch sequence, and the flight, until the time of the failure.

In a press release, NASA stated that there were no known issues prior to launch and that no personnel were injured or missing but that the entire payload was lost and there was significant damage to the launch pad.On 29 October 2014, teams of investigators began examining debris at the crash site,while a survey the same day found that there was no serious damage to the launch pad and site fuel tanks, although repairs would be required.

Subsequent investigation found that the LOX turbopump had exploded, although a specific reason for the failure could not be determined. Possible causes were a defective pump bearing, ingestion of loose debris, or a manufacturing defect.

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